It has constantly amazed me how geared most people are to find The One - the person who completes them; The One person who they’d want to spend the rest of their lives with. What amazes me is not their search but the fact that they are only looking out for one person. Why do a lot of people think that there can only be one person they can spend the rest of their lives with? Why are most people opposed to open relationships and some people who prefer them? Culturally and religiously, I know where most people are coming from. What started to boggle my mind though was this: Can there be any scientific reasoning behind our desire to have an OTP (One True Pairing)?

Science hypothesizes that every single one of us comes from a lesser evolved species, mainly: chimps. What’s interesting is as a species they are not really known to being monogamous. In fact, only 3% - 5% in 5,000 mammal species mate for life. This brings me back to my main point: scientifically speaking, how is it then that most of the human race is monogamous? To find out, I guess, you’d have to look back. We’re talking a couple million years ago. It’s interesting because to begin with, we were not naturally monogamists. Truth be told, up until 4 million years ago the less evolved species of man constantly had sex without much thought on who and how many they were having sex with. It was around this time when male-on-male competition started to disappear. Before, males would constantly fight over women to include in their harems to produce more offspring. One-one relationships began to form and instead of just reproducing more of its own kind, males started to care more for their offspring.

It is also theorized by Sergey Gavrilets, a computation-minded researcher at the University of Tennessee, that natural selection is the key reason as to why monogamy exists and why it proliferates. Scientists believe that as time went by, males began to realize that it was such a waste of time, energy, and resources to feud over females just to produce more younglings. They started to come to the conclusion that they are all better off pairing up and caring for their offsprings. It is also noted by Gavrilets that females tended to favor men who could cater to their needs of food and care for their children.

With these SCIENTIFIC reasons within our reach, you realize that monogamous relationships are truly more beneficial. Before culture or religion even came to exist, the human race already believed that monogamy was for the advancement of their own species as monogamous pairs produce lasting offsprings with better care for their young. Nature as usual also played its part and significantly contributed to this change.

People must remember though to respect the cultures, religions, and people who encourage and apply polygamy in their lives. We must understand as sensible human beings that everyone is entitled to their own belief. No one must be judged for believing and acting upon their own beliefs, unless of course other people are being hurt or severely inconvenienced.

Personally though, I’d also like to think it’s really more fulfilling (and crazy as it may seem), that it's both ideal and logical to be monogamous. Sure, in a sense polygamous relationships are more adventurous and exciting. After awhile though, the amount of time and energy these kinds of relationships take catches up on you. It takes so long to know and fully trust one human being, let alone one or two more. I think that being polygamous compromises any chance to form one solid unit to raise a family. Being in one good solid relationship builds and affirmsa human being's self-esteem and personhood, with the knowledge that he/she is loved unconditionally by one person who will then for better or for worse become a lifetime partner.

I fully understand that what I am saying is an ideal but I do think it still exists. It will take an incredible amount of work though. It can be difficult to choose the same person every day; it can be tiring to keep making exclusive relationships work. Dealing with your partner everyday is a both a joy and a constant struggle. What’s more exhausting though, I believe, is having to deal with the works of a relationship with one more person or even more so, if you're talking about multiple partners. In my opinion, it is detrimental to a person's emotional,mental, and physical health to constantly divide and compete for your partner's attention in polygamous situations. As my wise great grandfather has said “Dealing with one person for the rest of your life is hard enough, why make life more difficult by having another one?”